True Love is but a humble, low-born
thing,
And hath its food served up in earthen
ware;
It is a thing to walk with, hand
in hand.
Through the every-dayness of this
work-day world,
* * * * *
A simple, fireside thing, whose
quiet smile
Can warm earth’s poorest hovel
to a home.
Love. J.R. LOWELL.
He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him;
King John, Act ii. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
As unto the bow the cord is,
So unto the man is woman;
Though she bends him she obeys him;
Though she draws him, yet she follows,
Useless each without the other!
Hiawatha, Pt. X. H.W. LONGFELLOW.
Man is but half without woman; and
As do idolaters their heavenly gods,
We deify the things that we adore.
Festus. P.J. BAILEY.
Let
still the woman take
An elder than herself: so wears she
to him,
So sways she level in her husband’s
heart,
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and
won,
Than women’s are.
* * * * *
Then let thy love be younger than
thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.
Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband.
Taming of the Shrew, Act v. Sc. 2.
SHAKESPEARE.
And truant husband should return, and
say.
“My dear, I was the first who came
away.”
Don Juan, Canto I. LORD BYRON.
With thee conversing I forget all time;
All seasons and their change, all please
alike.
* * * * *
But neither breath of morn when she
ascends
With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun
On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glistering with dew, nor fragrance after showers,
Nor grateful evening mild, nor silent night
With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon,
Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.
Paradise Lost, Bk. IV. MILTON.
So
loving to my mother.
That he might not beteem the winds of
heaven
Visit her face too roughly.
Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Dear as the vital warmth that feeds
my life;
Dear as these eyes, that weep in fondness o’er
thee.
Venice Preserved, Act v. Sc. 1. T.
OTWAY.
Maidens like moths are ever caught
by glare.
And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. LORD
BYRON.
So, with decorum all things carry’d;
Miss frowned, and blushed, and then was—married.
The Double Transformation. O. GOLDSMITH.